I agree that one thing is different is that college is more inclusive, however,
another thing that I think is different is the experiences that students have
outside of class. When I took my first physics class everything made perfect
sense to me because I was quite familiar already with everything that was
discussed, just from everyday experiences. What the physics class allowed me
to do was quantitativey predict results that before I could only estimate
qualitatively. When we did all those mechanics problem with guns and cars
I was really interested because we spent a lot of time playing with guns and
cars outside of school. When they told us about work = F*d I could see the
value of that because I'd used a block and tackle to pull engines out of cars.
Vectors were really cool because suddenly a lot of things made a lot more sense
like the way a canoe behaves in fast moving water. A lot of the difference is
the shift from a rural to a urban society. A house on a small lot in a city
with a TV set just can't offer the same experiences as a house in the country
with woods, fields, country roads, and cheap old cars to play with, and a
garage full of tools.